nightmares
by Sally111
Summary: Tony stark keeps on having nightmares. Every night there slightly different but they all have 1 thing in common: Pepper is always the one in danger. So how will Tony react when Pepper gets shot? This isn't completed yet and is my first fanfic so reviews would be great! P.S I will be updating soon!
1. Chapter 1

He couldn't move, he couldn't save her. Pepper was going to die if he didn't do something soon but what could he do? The second he tried to move he would be shot himself. There was nothing he could do expect stand and watch the women he loved die. He said he was out to protect her but he didn't. He drove her into more danger. Now she was going to die and its even more unlikely that she'll survive this time.

" shot her in 3...2...1."

Tony awoke suddenly, grasping hold of his bed sheets tightly and looking beside him to check Pepper was safe. It was only 4am in the morning so Pepper wouldn't be up for another couple of hours.

Another nightmare. The never seemed to stop. Every night they were sightly different but they were always just as haunting and terrifying as they were the night before and they all had one common theme: Pepper was always the one in danger.

Tony got up and he was about to leave the room when a though struck him. _What if someone sneaks in while I'm gone and takes pepper? _He instead sat next to Pepper on the bed, hiding his face in his hands before running his hands through his hair.

_What am I going to do? I can't tell Pepper about these nightmare. How would she react? To know that I often dream about her being killed and that's why I can't sleep at night. It would destroy her. No, I'll keep this a secret. It's better if she doesn't know anyway. I have to keep an eye on her from now on though. I've got to protect her better than I have in the past. I've put her in danger over and over again and what if one time she doesn't make it through. I can't risk losing her. She means too much to me. No more saving the world._


	2. Chapter 2

Eventually morning came. Pepper woke up and she immediately noticed Tony sitting at the edge of the bed with his head resting on his hands. She moved herself over so she was sitting next to him. He was just staring blankly at the floor in front of him.

" Are you alright Tony?" Pepper asked. " you look like something is bothering you." Tony was immediately snapped out of his though chain when he heard Pepper.

" yeah, yeah I'm fine" Tony replied.

" you haven't been sitting there all night have you?" Pepper asked. Tony could hear the concern in her voice. He couldn't tell her he had been up for hours. She had been through so much recently. He didn't want to worry her.

" no,no only ten, maybe twenty minutes." Tony lied. "Anyway I'm hungry, are you hungry" Tony replied before getting up and heading downstairs quickly Pepper followed behind him slowly. She could tell something was wrong with him.

When Pepper got downstairs, Tony was already busy making coffee and toast.

"Do you need any help?" Pepper asked.

"No look just sit down and relax, I'll sort out breakfast for us both" Tony said with a tiny bit of command in his voice.

Pepper reluctantly sat down. Tony would probably still be in shock from the events that happened with the Mandarin. He hadn't been himself since the events of that Christmas. He just sat round the house doing nothing. He no longer had any suits to build and he had given up on trying to save the world from danger. Even though Tony always insisted it was for Pepper, she wasn't convinced. There was defiantly something wrong with him but Tony always just said he was fine.

After about 5 minutes, Tony brought over a mug of coffee and a couple of slices of toast.

"aren't you going to eat anything?" Pepper asked sounding both confused and worried.

" no I'm not hungry" Tony replied. He knew this was going to make Pepper worried about him especially seeing as he had said only 20 minutes ago that he was hungry. It had just a lie to change the subject though.

" you said you were hungry earlier?" There was more and more concern growing in Peppers voice and he knew that he wouldn't be able to lie to her much longer. She would find out the truth like she always did.

He couldn't think of how to reply so instead of trying to, he got up and went to make himself some toast. He knew this would confuse Pepper more but what else could he do? He had nothing to say back and he could hardly just sit there and not say anything. He would just make himself a slice of toasts. He could probably just about force himself to eat it.

When he sat back down Pepper looked right at him.

"You sure you're defiantly alright?" Pepper asked.

"yeah course I'm alight? Why wouldn't I be?" Tony said a bit too forcefully.

Pepper gave up questioning him. She knew there was defiantly something wrong with him but she wasn't going to get it out of him. Tony's always keeps so much inside. She needed some time to think over everything he's said that morning to try and maybe figure what was wrong with him. She hated seeing him like this but there was nothing she could do to help.

"I'm going to go get some shopping" Pepper said eventually.

"What no. you can't. I...I'll do it." Tony said quickly without thinking. He couldn't let her go outside. He couldn't look after and protect her then. He had to stay with her.

"Tony I can get the shopping myself. Just go get some rest" Pepper insisted before going and grabbing her coat and walking out the door.

Tony first though of chasing after her. That wouldn't help thought. He was just so worried something bad was going to happen to her. For all he knew there could still be people out to kill him. Threat was still immanent and there was nothing he could do to change that. He just had to protect Pepper.

Little did he know that it was already too late though.


	3. Chapter 3

Pepper left the house and started walk down the street to the shop. Luckily in their new house she no longer had to take the car to the shop. Their new house wasn't as nice but they still had a swimming pool and 3 floors. Everything seemed to be perfect for once. Tony was no longer trying to save the world which meant they weren't in hardly any danger now. The only dangers that really effected them were the dangers that everybody faces in everyday life.

The only problem that she had at the moment though was that she didn't have a clue what had gotten in to Tony and that worried her more than anything. There didn't seem to be anything that could of brought it on. Yes, Tony has had trouble sleeping in the past and he always wanted to protect Pepper but this was different. He was lying about being hungry now.

Pepper knew that one of the reasons he could be acting like this was because he had lost his suits. At Christmas Tony had destroyed his suits for Pepper despite the fact that he had always insisted that his suits were part of him so to lose them would be to lose himself. Tony wouldn't tell her that it was because of that though. He most likely wouldn't even tell her that there was anything wrong despite the fact that there obviously was something wrong.

He hadn't been acting like himself for ages now. He could rarely be bothered to do anything and if he did finally decide to do something then Pepper wasn't allowed to help him even in the slightest. Only earlier that week Pepper had made him a mug of coffee and he had freaked out saying that he could make one himself. He rarely ate or drink anything either. She just didn't know what to do anymore. She knew he would refuse to tell her what was wrong. Maybe there was some way she could trick him into going to a therapist? He would probably hate going to therapy though and would give it up after the first session. Pepper felt like there was actually nothing she could do to help him now.

As pepper carried on to walk down the street,she noticed a car that seemed to slowed down beside her. It had pulled out just has she had started to walk down the street. She ignored it at the time though as she thought that it was probably just a coincidence. She was starting to get more worried now. It must have been following her all the way from the house. She looked around to see if was possible that it was about to pull over but there was no parking spaces on this road. She also noticed that there were 7 people all dressed up in a stripy suit with a cobra on their tie. They all seemed to be paying particular attention to Pepper too. She tried to convince her that nothing bad was going to happen and that they were probably looking at something behind her but she couldn't. She was the wife of Tony Stark after all and for all she know there could be people still out to get them both. Pepper started to walk faster, desperately hoping that nothing terrible would happen.

At first she though of calling Tony for help but nothing bad had happened yet. Also it would just worry Tony too much and that could cause him to get worse. She would walk down the main road instead of going down the alley way this time though. It would probably be safer.

As she continued to walk down the road though she became more and more concerned that the car was following her and so were all the people in the suits. The car was driving a bit faster now but it seemed to always wait until she turned round a corner before it would turn round the corner itself. It was almost as if it needed to check which way she was going. Also all the people in the suits were still somewhere near her. Most of them were across the street but 1 seemed to just trail very slowly behind.

Pepper started to panicked. She though that she was finally safe but this was telling her otherwise. She constantly tried to convince her self that they weren't after her or anything.

When she finally got to the shop, they had all seemed to disappear which was a huge relief for Pepper. She still kept an eye out though. Just in case they had managed to hid somewhere in the shop so that she couldn't see them any more.

She did wonder who they were though. I mean she had never seen 7 people all dressed in the exact same stripy suit with a tie with a cobra on before. Maybe they were all part of a gang called the cobra?

When she had finally finished all the shopping, she had a quick check around to see if she could see any of the men in the stripy suits but there was no longer any sign of them. She decided that it was probably safe to take the alleyway home now. She was wrong though.

As she began to walk down the alleyway a man wearing a t-shirt and some old jeans came up to her.

" You're Pepper Potts right?" the man asked. She wasn't sure whether she should answer him or not. He could be anybody for all she knew.

"yeah but who are you?" She replied. Sadly that was the last thing she remembered from her shopping trip.

Hey sorry I feel like I kinda rambled on in this chapter and it is a bit rushed but I just didn't want to leave you all on that cliff hanger for too long. I just thought I'd leave on this one instead. Thank-you to everyone who has reviewed this so far! I will try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible.


	4. Chapter 4

Tony paced up and down the living-room. Pepper had been gone for an hour now. He knew Pepper might just be taking longer to get round the shop but she rarely took this long. Something must of happened to her.

He needed something to do. Something that could take his mind off of Pepper for a while. After all she was probably fine. He just worried that something bad might of happened to her. The fear of her getting hurt had gotten when she almost fell to her death. He just didn't want to get so close to losing her again.

It was when Pepper almost fell to her death that the nightmares got worst as well. He mainly dreamed about Pepper being in danger whereas before he dreamed about being held captive and tortured in Afghanistan.

His mind had been torturing him for months now as well. He had though about telling Pepper on several occasion but he could never quite bring himself to it. He just hated the idea of worrying Pepper. He had only just managed to tell her about the sleepless nights. There was no change he could tell her about the nightmares.

As Tony carried on to pace up and down the room he decided that maybe trying to build something would held. Maybe he could build a special gift for Pepper? That wouldn't help much though. He would still be thinking about Pepper. He had to take his mind off of her for while. She was most likely going to be home soon anyway.

He headed into his office. There was always some work he could do in there.

* * *

When Pepper woke up she was sitting in a dark room on her own. She tried to move, just to realize she was chained to the chair. She looked around the room she stuck in. There was no windows. Just two lights hanging from the ceiling and one of them was flickering on and off constantly. There must of also been a spiders web in almost every corner of the room. Although she had never been in one, Pepper imaged this was what it was like to be in a jail cell. The door had no handle on her side which must of been to stop her escaping. Just above that door there was also a camera to keep an eye on her. Again it must of been to make sure she didn't escape. Not that she could really seeing as there was no handle on the door and she was chained to a chair.

She continued to examine the room she was stuck in when she heard voices heading toward the room. She could just about make out what they were saying. There was something about her being in this and that she knew about Tony so could tell them where he is.

The voices continued to get closer and closer until she could hear a key jingling in the lock. She desperately hope that somehow Tony was with there and could get her out of here. He wasn't though. When the door opened 2 men walked in. One of them she could recognize as being the man that asked her if she was Pepper or not. He was now dressed in a black and white stripy suit with a tie with a cobra tie on like the people she had seen in the streets. The other guy was in a plain black suit and a white tie instead. He came and stood just in front of her.

" ah Pepper Potts, What a pleasure to meet you" He said. He sounded friendly but sarcastic at the same time.

"I'm Tocobra and basically all I want to know from you is: Where is Tony Stark?" He continued. She couldn't tell him where Tony was. He most likely had something against him after all and might hurt him.

" What do you want with Tony?" Pepper asked, she had to know what they were going to do with Tony before she could tell him where he was.

" Revenge" He replied in a bitter tone. Pepper wondered what he meant by that. Could he of worked with Killian?

"I'll repeat: Where is Tony Stark?" He asked forcefully and taking forward so he was even closer to her. Pepper started to panic. She couldn't tell him that he would be at home.

" I don't know honestly"

"Lies!" he shouted before lifting his hand up to slap her. Pepper could fell her eyes welling up from the pain.

"Look I honestly don't know. He went out earlier but he didn't tell where he was going." Pepper lied, hoping she wouldn't get another slap and that he would believe her.

" Ok then." He said before both of the men walked out of the room.

Pepper was now once again left on her own in the room. She hoped that maybe he had believed her lie but only a couple of minutes later the 2 men entered the room again. This time Tocobra had a phone in his hand. She could just recognize it as being her phone.

" Lets give Tony a call shall we? Find out where he is." He said before dialing a number. Pepper started to get worried. Tony might say he was at home and so they would find out that she had lied.

* * *

Hi, sorry i kinda just merged 2 of the chapters together because there wasn't much to say about Tony at the moment. Sorry about the long wait between the chapters this time as well. I'll try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible! Thank-you to everyone who has read this so far and has reviewed it. I really do love reading your reviews so thank-you!


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